An apparatus for opening tuffs of fibre materials using pressurized gaseous fluid and method thereof

ABSTRACT

An apparatus and method for opening lumps and tuffs of fibre material in blow room of a spinning facility is disclosed. The disclosed method and apparatus use bursts of pressurized gaseous fluid which results in better opening of fibre lumps and reduced damage or breakage of the fibres. The gaseous fluid may be air or a gas or a mixture of air and gases. One or more nozzles  206  arranged in one or more rows are used to direct one or more controlled jets of a pressurized gaseous fluid at the tuffs/lumps  210  of fibre material entering through an opening  204  of at least one chamber  202 , which results in opening of the tuffs to smaller and more opened tufts of fibre as well as in separation of foreign material trapped in the lumps. The controlled jets of the pressurized gaseous fluid, such as air, may be bursts of short durations.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the field of textile machinery. In particular, the present disclosure relates to a fibre material opening apparatus used in blow room of a spinning facility and method thereof.

BACKGROUND

Background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.

Machines used in blow rooms of spinning facilities are well known in the art. When bales of fibre material, manmade or artificial, arrive at a spinning mill, these are subjected to various operations in the blow room to make the material suitable for spinning. As a general rule, operations in a blow room comprise: opening the bale by extracting lumps of densely packed fibre, further opening of lumps of fibre material to smaller tufts, mixing or blending the materials of different types or grades, cleaning of the fibre material, dust removal and uniformly feeding the material to carding machines.

Blow room installations consist of a sequence of different machines to carry out the above mentioned operations. Typically, each of the machines consist either spike rollers of varying sizes, or various types of mechanical beaters. The natural or manmade fibre material received in highly pressed form, i.e. in bales, is passed through several stages where it is opened into smaller and smaller lumps in a gradual sequence. During this process foreign matter loosened from the material gets separated from the fibre. Since lump/tuft size becomes smaller and smaller with each succeeding stage, the required intensities of processing necessitates different machine configurations for different stages.

However, treating fibre material with mechanical components like spike rollers or beaters, as in conventional machines, causes a considerable amount of long and good fibbers to break leading to loss in terms of quality of material. Besides, the conventional process also suffers from other disadvantages. For example, a considerable number of unopened or partially opened lumps pass through along with the opened material, due to which a considerable amount of foreign matter remains in the end product. Since it is not possible to eliminate the foreign matter hidden inside fibre clusters, they need to be removed resulting in loss of good length fibres as waste with the clusters. If a larger number of beating points were to be used for opening all the clusters, the increased processing causes increased fibre breakage and wastage. Therefore, normally, between three to four beating points are considered to be the boundaries of the most typical setups.

Therefore, there is a requirement of an improved method and apparatus for opening of fibre material in blow rooms as an alternative to conventional method and apparatus that use spiked rollers or beaters.

All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.

In some embodiments, the numbers expressing quantities of ingredients, properties such as concentration, reaction conditions, and so forth, used to describe and claim certain embodiments of the invention are to be understood as being modified in some instances by the term “about.” Accordingly, in some embodiments, the numerical parameters set forth in the written description and attached claims are approximations that can vary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained by a particular embodiment. In some embodiments, the numerical parameters should be construed in light of the number of reported significant digits and by applying ordinary rounding techniques. Notwithstanding that the numerical ranges and parameters setting forth the broad scope of some embodiments of the invention are approximations, the numerical values set forth in the specific examples are reported as precisely as practicable. The numerical values presented in some embodiments of the invention may contain certain errors necessarily resulting from the standard deviation found in their respective testing measurements.

As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” includes plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

The recitation of ranges of values herein is merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range. Unless otherwise indicated herein, each individual value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g. “such as”) provided with respect to certain embodiments herein is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element essential to the practice of the invention.

Groupings of alternative elements or embodiments of the invention disclosed herein are not to be construed as limitations. Each group member can be referred to and claimed individually or in any combination with other members of the group or other elements found herein. One or more members of a group can be included in, or deleted from, a group for reasons of convenience and/or patentability. When any such inclusion or deletion occurs, the specification is herein deemed to contain the group as modified thus fulfilling the written description of all Markus groups used in the appended claims.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

A general object of the present disclosure is to improve the process of opening of fibre material in blow room of spinning facilities.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a method for opening the fibre material and an apparatus to implement the proposed method that does not adversely affect value of the fibre material.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a method for opening the fibre material and an apparatus to implement the proposed method that reduces damage or breakage of the fibres.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a method for opening the fibre material and an apparatus to implement the proposed method that does not depend on mechanical beating of the fibre material.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a method for opening the fibre material and an apparatus to implement the proposed method that reduces number of unopened or partially opened lumps.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a method for opening the fibre material and an apparatus to implement the proposed method that enables removal of greater amount of foreign matter from the fibres or tufts with minimal damage to the fibres.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a method for opening the fibre material and an apparatus to implement the proposed method that reduces wastage of good fibre.

SUMMARY

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to opening tuffs or lumps of fibre materials in blow room of spinning facilities. In particular, the present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for opening of fibre material that overcome drawbacks of conventional method using spiked rollers and/or mechanical beaters. Specifically, the proposed method and the apparatus implementing the proposed method reduce wastage of good fibre, prevent breakage of fibre and enables removal of foreign matter more efficiently.

In an aspect, the disclosed method and apparatus use bursts of pressurized gaseous fluid, replacing the spiked rollers and/or mechanical beaters, which results in reduced damage or breakage of the fibres. The gaseous fluid may be air or a gas or a mixture of air and gases.

In an aspect, one or more nozzles arranged in one or more rows may be used to direct one or more controlled jets of a pressurized gaseous fluid at the lumps of fibre material received from Bale opener machine, to open the lump to smaller and more opened tufts of fibre. The loosened tufts may be carried away to the next station by suction or any other device.

In an aspect, the apparatus (also referred to as machine and the two terms used interchangeably hereinafter) for opening lumps and tuffs of fibre material received from a bale opening machine comprises: at least one chamber with an opening for feeding the fibre material; and at least one nozzle located adjacent to the opening such that a controlled jet of the pressurized gaseous fluid from the at least one nozzle is directed at the lumps of fibre material. In an aspect, the controlled jet of the pressurized gaseous fluid results in smaller and more opened tufts of fibre.

In an aspect, the loosened tufts may be carried away to the next station by suction or any other device.

In an aspect, the controlled jets of the pressurized gaseous fluid may be bursts of short durations.

In an aspect, the at least one nozzle may comprise a plurality of nozzles arranged in one or more rows of nozzles, and may be configured such that more than one jets are directed to the lumps/tuffs of fibres from single or multiple directions, simultaneously or in a sequential manner.

In an aspect, the apparatus is characterized by absence of mechanical beating of the lumps of fibre material for opening the lumps.

In an aspect, the at least one chamber may be shaped to allow spreading of the opened fibre material to a larger volume.

In an aspect, source of the pressurized gaseous fluid may be inbuilt with the apparatus, or may be an external source, or may be a combination of external source and an inbuilt source.

In an aspect, the pressurized gaseous fluid can be air, or a mixture of air and a gas.

In an aspect, the fibre material may be any, or a combination of a natural fibre and a manmade fibre.

An aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for opening lumps and tuffs of a fibre material received from a bale opening machine, the proposed method comprising the steps of: (i) feeding the fibre material through an opening; and (ii) directing a controlled jet of a pressurized gaseous fluid from at least one nozzle, at the lumps of fibre material fed through the opening. In an aspect, the controlled jet of the pressurized gaseous fluid interact with lumps to cause the lumps to open.

In an aspect, the proposed method further comprises the step of controlling the jets of the pressurized gaseous fluid to create bursts of short durations.

In an aspect, the proposed method is characterized by absence of mechanical beating of the lumps of fibre material for opening the lumps.

In an aspect, the method further comprises step of directing a plurality of j ets of the gaseous fluid to the lumps of fibres in bursts of short durations from single or multiple directions, simultaneously or in a sequential manner.

Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the inventive subject matter will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, along with the accompanying drawing figures in which like numerals represent like components.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the present disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1 illustrates a typical arrangement used for opening lumps and tuffs of fibre material before feeding the material to spinning machines.

FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate exemplary schematic representation, with help of side and top views respectively, of the proposed apparatus for opening lumps and tuffs of fibre material, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary flow diagram for the proposed method for opening lumps and tuffs of fibre material, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following is a detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure depicted in the accompanying drawings. The embodiments are in such detail as to clearly communicate the disclosure. However, the amount of detail offered is not intended to limit the anticipated variations of embodiments; on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.

Each of the appended claims defines a separate invention, which for infringement purposes is recognized as including equivalents to the various elements or limitations specified in the claims. Depending on the context, all references below to the “invention” may in some cases refer to certain specific embodiments only. In other cases it will be recognized that references to the “invention” will refer to subject matter recited in one or more, but not necessarily all, of the claims.

Various terms are used herein. To the extent a term used in a claim is not defined, it should be given the broadest definition persons in the pertinent art have given that term as reflected in printed publications and issued patents at the time of filing.

Embodiments explained herein relate to opening of tuffs or lumps of fibre materials, such as cotton or other man-made fibre materials, in blow room of spinning facilities. fibre materials are received in the spinning facilities in highly compressed state in form of bales. When the material is removed from the bales, such as by using bale opening machines, they come out as lumps and tuffs of the material, which are unsuitable for spinning operation. Besides, the material may also contain foreign materials, such as seeds, leaves, dust etc, which need to be separated before feeding the fibre material to spinning machines.

Therefore, the lumps/tuffs of the material are subjected to a series of operations to loosen the lumps/tuffs so that the foreign material get separated, and the fibre material is ready for spinning.

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram showing a typical arrangement used for loosening the lumps/tuffs of fibre material and separating foreign material there from. As shown, the conventional machines and methods for loosening the lumps/tuffs of fibre material is based on spiked rollers, such as roller 102 that loosens the fibre material by pulling/beating the tuffs 104 fed to the spikes of the roller 102. As the tuffs 104 are loosened, foreign material 106 gets separated and falls down, as shown. The loosened fibre material 108 is carried away by suction using compressed air 110.

Conventional machines and methods, such as shown at FIG. 1, cause a considerable amount of long and good fibbers to break leading to loss in terms of quality of material. Besides, a considerable number of unopened or partially opened lumps pass through along with the opened material, due to which a considerable amount of foreign matter remains in the end product. Since it is not possible to eliminate the foreign matter hidden inside fibre clusters, these unopened lumps/tuffs are removed resulting in loss of good length fibres as waste.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide an apparatus and method for opening of the fibre material that overcome drawbacks of conventional method using spiked rollers and/or mechanical beaters. In an aspect, the disclosed method and apparatus implementing the proposed method use bursts of pressurized gaseous fluid, replacing the spiked rollers and/or mechanical beaters, which results in reduced damage or breakage of the fibres, reduce wastage of good fibre, and remove foreign matter more efficiently.

Referring to FIGS. 2A and 2B, which illustrate exemplary schematic representation, with help of side and top views respectively, of the proposed apparatus for opening lumps and tuffs of fibre material, the disclosed apparatus 200 comprises: at least one chamber 202 with an opening 204 for feeding the fibre material, and at least one nozzle 206 located adjacent to the opening 204 such that a controlled jet of the pressurized gaseous fluid from the at least one nozzle 206 is directed at the lumps 210 of fibre material. The controlled jets of the pressurized gaseous fluid upon hitting the lumps 210 causes the lumps 210 to open, resulting in smaller and more opened tufts of fibre.

In an aspect, the loosened tufts may be carried away to the next station by a suction or any other device. (not shown here).

In an embodiment, the gaseous fluid used may be air, which is easily available and cheap to compress. Specifically, equipment to compress air is easily available, and is generally part of blow room facilities, such as for bale opening machine. Thus, the source of the pressurized gaseous fluid may be an external source such as compressed air source of the blow room facilities, or may be inbuilt with the apparatus 200. In an alternate embodiment, it may be a combination of external source and an inbuilt source.

In an embodiment, the pressurized gaseous fluid can be a mixture of air and a gas.

In an aspect, the fibre material opened by the proposed apparatus 200 may be any, or a combination of a natural fibre and a manmade fibre.

In an aspect, the controlled jets of the pressurized gaseous fluid may be bursts of short durations, and the bursts of short duration may be obtained by a control mechanism 208 provided in passage for the gaseous fluid as shown.

In an aspect, the at least one nozzle may comprise a plurality of nozzles 206 arranged in one or more rows of nozzles, and may be configured such that more than one jets are directed to the lumps/tuffs 210 of fibres from single or multiple directions, simultaneously or in a sequential manner.

In an embodiment, the nozzles 206 may be fixed or move to direct the jets of air in horizontal plane, or vertical plane, or both horizontal and vertical planes to direct the jets in single or multiple directions, simultaneously or in a sequential manner.

In an aspect, the jets of air may interact with the tuffs/lumps of fibre material by directly hitting and penetrating the lumps thereby spreading the fibre material to a larger space to open the lump, or may interact by pulling the fibres from the lumps on account of pulling action of the pressurized air flowing over the lump. In either case, action of burst of air jet results in better opening of fibre material and spreading it with reduced damage or breakage of the fibres. In another aspect, separation of fibre material results in loosening of any foreign material trapped by the fibres, leading to cleaning of the fibre material.

As can be seen, the proposed apparatus is characterized by absence of mechanical beating of the lumps of fibre material for opening the lumps, and therefore, minimizes breakage of fibres.

In an aspect, the at least one chamber 202 may be shaped to allow spreading of the opened fibre material to a larger volume. As shown in FIG. 2B, the chamber 202 may be of divergent shape to provide more space to the loosened fibre material.

An aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for opening lumps and tuffs of a fibre material received from a bale opening machine. As shown at FIG. 3, the proposed method 300 at step 302 involves feeding the lumps of fibre material, such as lumps of fibre material 210 shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, through an opening such as opening 204, shown in FIG. 2A. Step 304 of the method 300 may be to direct a controlled jet of a pressurized gaseous fluid from at least one nozzle, such as nozzle 206 shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, at the lumps of fibre material 210 fed through the opening 204. In an aspect, the controlled jet of the pressurized gaseous fluid upon hitting the lumps 210 causes the lumps 210 to open.

In an aspect, the proposed method further comprises the step 306 of controlling the jets of the pressurized gaseous fluid to create bursts of short durations. The bursts of short duration may be generated using by a control mechanism, such as control mechanism 208 shown at FIGS. 1A and 1B, provided in passage for the gaseous fluid as shown.

In an embodiment, there may be a plurality of nozzles 206 arranged in one or more rows of nozzles, and may be configured such that more than one jets are directed to the lumps/tuffs 210 of fibres from single or multiple directions, simultaneously or in a sequential manner.

In an embodiment, the method may comprise step of moving nozzles 206 to direct the jets of pressurized gaseous fluid in horizontal plane, or vertical plane, or both horizontal and vertical planes, to direct the jets in single or multiple directions, simultaneous or in a sequential manner.

Thus, the present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for opening tuffs/lumps of fibre material using compressed gaseous fluid, doing away with spiked rollers and/or mechanical beaters, overcoming drawbacks of the conventional methods and machines. The proposed method and the apparatus implementing the proposed method reduce wastage of good fibre, prevent breakage of fibre and remove foreign matter more efficiently.

While the foregoing describes various embodiments of the invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof. The scope of the invention is determined by the claims that follow. The invention is not limited to the described embodiments, versions or examples, which are included to enable a person having ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention when combined with information and knowledge available to the person having ordinary skill in the art.

Advantages of the Invention

The present disclosure improves the process of opening of fibre material in blow room of spinning facilities.

The present disclosure provides a method for opening the fibre material and an apparatus to implement the proposed method that does not adversely affect value of the fibre material.

The present disclosure provides a method for opening the fibre material and an apparatus to implement the proposed method that reduces damage or breakage of the fibres.

The present disclosure provides a method for opening the fibre material and an apparatus to implement the proposed method that does not depend on mechanical beating of the fibre material.

The present disclosure provides a method for opening the fibre material and an apparatus to implement the proposed method that reduces number of unopened or partially opened lumps.

The present disclosure provides a method for opening the fibre material and an apparatus to implement the proposed method that loosens and removes greater amount of foreign matter from the fibres or tufts with minimal damage to the fibres. 

1.-10. (canceled)
 11. An apparatus (200) for opening lumps (210) and tuffs of fibre material, comprising: one or more openings (204) for feeding the fibre material to one or more chambers (202); one or more nozzles (206) located adjacent to the openings (204) such that controlled jets of a pressurized gaseous fluid from the one or more nozzles (206) are directed at the lumps (210) of fibre material as the lumps (210) enter the chamber (202) from the one or more openings (204); wherein the controlled jet of the pressurized gaseous fluid interacts with the lumps (210) to cause the lumps (210) to open; wherein the controlled jets of the pressurized gaseous fluid are bursts of short durations; and wherein the apparatus (200) is characterized by absence of mechanical beating of the lumps (210) of fibre material for opening the lumps (210).
 12. The apparatus (200) as claimed in claim 11, wherein the one or more chambers (202) have increasing cross section in direction away from the nozzles (206) to allow spreading of the opened fibre material to a larger volume.
 13. The apparatus (200) as claimed in claim 11, wherein source of the pressurized gaseous fluid is inbuilt with the apparatus, or external source, or a combination of external source and an inbuilt source.
 14. The apparatus (200) as claimed in claim 11, wherein the pressurized gaseous fluid is air, or a mixture of air and a gas.
 15. The apparatus (200) as claimed in claim 11, wherein the fibre material is any one or a combination of a natural fibre and a manmade fibre.
 16. A method (300) for opening lumps (210) and tuffs of a fibre material comprising the steps of: feeding (302) the lumps of fibre material to be opened to a chamber (204 through one or more openings (204); and directing (304) controlled jets of a pressurized gaseous fluid from one or more nozzles (206), at the lumps (210) of fibre material as the lumps (210) enter the chamber (202) from the one or more openings (204); controlling (306) the jets of the pressurized gaseous fluid to create bursts of short durations, wherein the controlled jets of the pressurized gaseous fluid interact with the lumps (210) to cause the lumps (210) to open; wherein the method (300) is characterized by absence of mechanical beating of the lumps (210) of fibre material for opening the lumps (210). 